New Engine For the Forester Needed (Probably)

[lupinsea]

So . . .

We probably need a new engine for our new-to-us Subie Forester.

It was idling really rough Friday morning and then all sorts of warning lights went off and the check engine light came on. Fortunately we were driving past a Subaru dealership and just pulled in.

Turns out there was only 1/4 - 1/2 quart of oil in the engine.

WFT and it hadn't been the full interval to the next oil change. Anyways, the techs need to check with Subaru and they can't promise anything but it's likely covered under warranty. There's no signs of external leakage and the engines don't but up oil that fast. They are guessing an internal seal problem which . . . isn't an unknown issue with these engines on occasion. Guess we got the right occasion. Joy.

They didn't have time friday to tear into it too much but at least the cam carrier needs to be replace and they is likely other damage. Might have to have the heads checked at a performance shop and a new short block from Subaru.

I'll know more once they get into it further.

[kognito]

Bummer,

Just went through another round of "teach wife how to check oil" myself yesterday.

Self serve gas is great, but while we lived in NJ when the attendant asked if he/she could check the oil, Jutta would let them

[bren]

Is it turbo charged? I have a friend who goes through nearly a turbo charger a year on his legacy thanks to some bum oil seal design.

[Plaz]

Originally Posted by kognito

while we lived in NJ when the attendant asked if he/she could check the oil

I have never had that experience.

[clyde]

If there's one complaint I have about the Outback, it's oil consumption. And the fuck as all hard to find 0-20w recommended weight.

[equ]

Ugh... Sorry to hear. How many miles?

We personally had a not great experience with subies. Gf's 96 Impreza 2.2L lost its head gasket and thus the engine at around 78k miles. Commuting on the freeway! Supposedly reliable cars, in fact, people use the 2.2L for DIY airplanes.

We ended up selling that car to the mechanic, but I know yours is far newer. I wonder if there was undisclosed damage/repairs/history when you bought it.

[bren]

Originally Posted by clyde

...0-20w recommended weight.

I saw a bunch of that on clearance at the local Napa recently and was wondering what it was for.

[John V]

This happened to my aunt's Forester. Ended up destroying the engine.

[ff]

Originally Posted by clyde

hard to find 0-20w

You'd think by now it would be a little more common. But, nope.

[lupinsea]

It's the regular non-turbo engine with about 38,000 miles on it.

The kicker is that everyone we've talked to that has them swears up and down Subies are reliable. Not sure what to think at this point. I realize that there are sometimes manufacturing defects and shit happens but, hm.

The tech at dealership suggested for future reference to check the oil at least once a month. The boxer engines or perhaps it's just Subaru's engines, burn a little more oil than normal. But he said there should have been no way under any normal circumstances that the engine would have burned this much oil since the last fill up (from the dealership where we bought the car from (hm)).

All engines are different I suppose.

Our ZHP reliably went through about 1 qt per 3000-4000 miles.

My Jeep does not burn oil between fill ups.

And the Miata doesn't seem to use much, either.

In any case, still waiting to hear from the dealership SA what Subaru says on the warranty coverage. Normal procedure is to fix what's broken and then do an oil leakage test (we'd take the car in every 1000 miles and they'd measure how much oil is used between check-ins). If consumption it's above a certain threshold they'd authorize further repairs. Not really crazy about that idea as I'm not sure what other parts of the engine may have worn or been damaged from the low oil levels.